Hi all, I’m a highschool sophomore. I’m constantly thinking about the elephant in my room, which is university. I know that the road ahead of me is still decently long and that there will emerge countless opportunities. I have a 4.13 GPA(Unweighted) and this is my 2nd year in student government and Model United Nations. I’m not a child prodigy who has been winning competitions since young, or have a mega long list of international accolades. I get involved with my local community in my spare time and teach underprivileged kids math, science and technology. I know that everybody who applies to the very top schools are the same. I have a defeatist attitude when it comes to these schools, and I often tell myself that it doesn’t matter, you don’t always have to be the very top in life, and that lots of people who graduate from those schools don’t necessarily find success, and vice versa. Nearly everyday do I look at the prepscholar website and look at the admissions criteria and tell myself that I won’t get in. How do I get over this? I’m not asking how to get in, but how to rid myself from this slump. I’m sorry if I may sound petty or haughty, but I just can’t seem to get away from this issue.
First and foremost, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, spend your highschool years focused on doing stuff “because it will help me get into a ‘top’ college”. The end result of that is often disappointment and bitterness. It is almost always a terrible way to waste your teen years.
I will repeat something I have written before. You should let your highschool activity and accomplishments determine which college you choose, rather than let your choice of college (in 9th grade!) determine your highschool activities and accomplishments.
The way to determine what you should do during high school is to figure out what will make you proud and satisfied when you graduate, regardless of what college you attend. Choose classes which will interest and challenge you. Do ECs which you find important and satisfying.
Of course, one should not forget college entirely, if that is part of one’s plans. Your GC will help you set up a curriculum which is challenging, fits your interests, and fulfills the basic requirements of a broad spectrum of colleges.
My simplest remedy for this is to stop looking at the Prepscholar website. End of story. There is absolutely nothing in their admissions statistics which can make your life better or help you in any way.
Furthermore, once again, there are hundreds of excellent colleges out there in which you will thrive and graduate successfully. Stop obsessing over acceptances to an arbitrary 20 or so colleges which USNews has crowned “USNews Best Colleges for 20xx”. It’s useless and counterproductive, not to mention psychologically harmful.
Just because you recognize the name of a college from popular culture or elsewhere, does not make it a place in which you will even be happy, much less thrive, not mention a “dream school”. If you want to spend some time on college admissions websites, spend it exploring the other hundreds of colleges out there, what they look like, what the students are like, what it is like to be a student there. There are almost certainly a few dozen colleges out there where you will be far happier and do far better (in college and in life) than at the list of colleges which are so revered by many on CC.
Work on having an optimist attitude in all areas of your life rather than focusing on being more optimistic in this one area. Then it will transfer to this slump. As you approach your days and weeks when you find yourself having a defeatist attitude, replace it with a positive thought. I suspect you are like this about more than just getting into top colleges.
I know plenty of successful and happy people who didn’t go to a “top college”. You can have a productive and fruitful life no matter where you go or what you do.